Onomastics is the study of the history and the origin of proper names. It also becomes part of studies in other fields like linguistics, history, geography and many more. There are two branches/types of proper names, 1. place names or toponyms and 2. personal names or anthroponyms. I am interested in both as I am actively investigating where the name 'de Bilde' comes from.
The oldest entry with the exact spelling I have is for a birth record in Beveren-Waas, Oost Vlaanderen, Belgium for Catareena de Bilde born April 18, 1664 (copy received via email).
Also I found the name 'de Blide' hoping this to be a misspelling under Flemish Names from Bruges, 1400-1600; the year for the census: 1468!!
ref.: Histoire de la Guilde des Archers de Saint Sebastien de la Ville de Bruges by Henri Godar.
Yet all of the above does not help much with the origin of the name but it places it historically in what is today Belgium... so the 'deBilde'-Zeelanders were/are actually from East Flanders aka Oost Vlaanderen!!
That explains the spread of the name in Belgium today:
217 in Belgium ref.: familienaam.be
73 in the Netherlands ref.: meertens.knaw.nl
One of my clan members was born in Beveren (1708) and married in Hulst (1736). The question is what were the borders in those days?
Back to the investigation of origins, many theories exist, for a while I believed that the town of the ‘De Bilt’ might or could have been the birthplace of the name but... there is another blog entry for De Bilt. So I followed my ancestors across the "border" to Waasland.... one fellow researcher suggested that the name de Bilde is more a Belgian-Flemish name than Dutch-Flemish. ok. and yet another fellow from Belgium presumably gave me this reference: "Woordenboek van de familienamen in Belgie en Noord-Frankrijk" door Dr Frans Debrabandere
ISBN 90 204 0207 2, pg 310 - the old French name for tree stump is "bille" and spoken in Flemish becomes “bilde” (ll becomes ld). Makes sense to me and perhaps reading a bit more about the History of Holland or Flanders will give me more insight as to who the first "tree stump" was?!
Could there be a Danish connection?? Here are the records I found with the name 'Bilde" sans de...
“Histoire de Danemark depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu'a nos jours: avec une bibliographie et des tables généaloques » par C.F.Allen;
troisième période: 1596-1660 guerre avec la suède
page 74: Le maréchal danois André Bilde...
page 78: André Bilde
page 409: Bilde, commandant à Kronberg
“Annual report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records”
Great Britain Public Record Office
page 21: 1548, July 22 mention of Andrew Bilde, consul @ Helsignor
« memoirs de la société des antiquaires de l’Ouest »
page 11 : 1556 mention of Jean Bilde, governor of the island of Gothland
Isn’t it fascinating to find “famous” commandants, a governor even and a consul with our name? What really started my creative juices aka fantasy was this entry from 1548!!
”records of Scandinavian students at the University of Orleans, France”
1601 Andreas Bilde, danus (Dane)
1548 Henricus Bilde, danus nobilis dominus (Danish noble Lord)
We all know how much fun students have away from home… Henricus was no exception and he might have produced some offspring while studying in France. Who knows?! I couldn’t help but picturing this scenario at the dinner table:
Papa: “qui pater est?” or in French: “qui est le père?”
Girl whispering: « danorum nobilis Bilde » or in French : « Bilde, le noble danois »
Papa: “o nobilis in Bilde” or in French: “oui, le prix de la noblesse de Bilde” (the price of the nobility Bilde)
or something like that. In French it would explain where the ‘de’ comes from. So that’s my story!! Hahaha. Farfetched? Certainly, but I could use a little humor in my often frustrating and fruitless research.
for fun a dictionary of Flemish First names with translation in Latin and French:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~northing/placenames/europe/names/ffn_aa.html
notes: do you have corrections or more information for this blog? please leave a comment so I may contact you...
thanks to all who have contributed to my quest especially Bernard Krijbolder and Ludo Hemelaer. thanks.
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